🏠 We banned its mining 32 years ago.
We know it causes cancer and permanent lung damage.
Yet in 2025, asbestos is still everywhere—in our walls, ceilings, brakes, tiles, and tragically… in our lungs.
This isn’t a warning about some rare toxin in a lab.
This is a Category 1 Carcinogen confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)—meaning asbestos is definitely known to cause cancer in humans.
🇮🇳 India: The Global Capital of Asbestos Imports
Despite global bans, India continues to import, use, and normalize asbestos:
- India imported approx. 485,000 tonnes of asbestos in 2023, a 29% rise from 2022.
- By 2024, imports slightly dropped to 348,000 tonnes, but India still accounts for over 44% of global asbestos trade.
- Major exporters to India: Russia, Brazil, Kazakhstan, and China.
- India banned asbestos mining in 1993, but no law bans its import, sale, or use.
- Asbestos-based cement products are widely manufactured in India, especially for roofing in rural and low-income areas.
🧱 Where Is Asbestos Found? Practically Everywhere
- Cement roofing sheets (especially in rural homes and schools)
- Wall partitions and ceiling tiles
- Brake pads, clutch plates, and gaskets in automobiles
- Insulation materials in old buildings
- Pipes and plumbing infrastructure
- Even some floor tiles in older construction
The average person in India unknowingly inhales micro-asbestos fibers daily—at home, at school, or at work.
☣️ Confirmed: Asbestos Is a Group 1 Carcinogen
The IARC classifies asbestos as Group 1, the highest level of carcinogenicity—“carcinogenic to humans.”
Asbestos exposure causes:
- Mesothelioma (a rare, deadly cancer of the lung lining)
- Lung cancer
- Ovarian cancer
- Laryngeal cancer
- Asbestosis (a chronic, scarring lung disease)
There is no safe level of asbestos exposure. Even brief contact can cause disease decades later. The latency period can be 20–40 years, meaning damage from 1990s exposure is surfacing now.
⚰️ A National Health Crisis in the Making
- Over 6 million people in India are estimated to be at risk of developing asbestos-related diseases.
- More than 600,000 cancer cases linked to asbestos are predicted in the next 20 years.
- 2,213 mesothelioma cases were confirmed in hospitals between 2012 and 2023—yet the official registry listed only 54 cases.
- The National Cancer Registry Program covers only 16% of India’s population, meaning actual cases could be 5 to 10 times higher.
- Construction and auto-repair workers inhale fibers daily with zero protective equipment.
Even family members of asbestos workers fall victim. Washing clothes of an exposed worker is enough to trigger mesothelioma decades later.
🏗️ A Silent Killer in Every Brick
Most homes built before 2000 in India contain asbestos. Even new low-cost buildings still use asbestos cement sheets because they are:
- Cheaper than metal roofing
- More heat-resistant
- Easily available across the country
But they release microscopic fibers into the air when cut, drilled, weathered, or broken.
Unlike dust, asbestos fibers are invisible, float for hours, and can lodge permanently in the lungs. Once they embed, they start the slow march toward cancer.
🚨 Regulatory Hypocrisy: Banned to Mine, Okay to Import
In 1993, India banned asbestos mining citing health risks.
But no ban exists on importing or selling asbestos products. The industry thrives on the lie of “safe asbestos”—specifically chrysotile, or white asbestos.
Scientific consensus is clear: all forms of asbestos are dangerous, including chrysotile.
Yet, powerful construction lobbies and weak enforcement ensure that:
- No warning labels exist on asbestos sheets.
- No mandatory health screening is done for workers.
- No builder is held accountable when a worker dies of lung disease.
💡 How Developed Countries Responded vs. India
Countries that BANNED asbestos completely:
- United Kingdom (1999)
- European Union (2005)
- Japan (2006)
- Australia (2003)
- Brazil (2017)
- South Korea (2009)
- All 27 EU nations
India? Still using asbestos to roof rural homes, build low-cost housing, and manufacture vehicle parts.
And the worst? We continue to oppose asbestos listing in international hazardous chemical treaties like the Rotterdam Convention—openly protecting trade over lives.
🧠 What Needs to Be Done—NOW
1. Nationwide Ban
India must stop import, sale, and use of all asbestos, especially chrysotile. No exceptions. No loopholes.
2. Builder Accountability
Builders and manufacturers using asbestos should be legally liable for exposure-related illnesses.
3. Worker Safety & Monitoring
- Compulsory PPE for all construction and auto workers
- Annual lung scans and health records
- Compensation for occupational cancer victims
4. Public Awareness Campaigns
Let people know what’s in their roofs and tiles. Promote safe, affordable alternatives like fly ash bricks, metal roofing, and non-asbestos fiber cement.
🧵 Why This Matters for Save Handloom Foundation
At Save Handloom Foundation, we talk about natural fibers, clean air, and ethical working conditions. But if our artisans live and work under asbestos roofs, all our sustainable slogans fall flat.
We must ensure:
- No looms operate under asbestos roofing
- No artisan homes contain asbestos products
- Government handloom schemes include asbestos-free infrastructure upgrades
This is about air, not just art. About life, not just livelihood.
✊ Final Thought
We have vaccines for COVID.
We have machines for Mars.
But for asbestos cancer, we have nothing. Not even time.
A full ban, strong regulation, and awareness campaigns are the only treatment for this man-made epidemic.
🧠 Ask Yourself:
- Is there asbestos in your ceiling, wall, or workplace?
- Do you know if your artisan community uses asbestos roofing?
- Will you wait until someone you love coughs blood?
🗣️ Speak Up. Demand a Ban. Protect Every Breath.
This is the time to act—not in memory of the victims, but in protection of the millions still breathing it in.
